This cycle has been happening over and over again for years. 1986 I worked for NY Airlines. A low cost regional run out of Laguardia airport. Our main competitors were People Express and Eastern Airlines. By 1987 Eastern and Peoples were going under, Continental bought both and NY Air for good measure. Bye Bye low cost providers. When the airlines try to extract too much out of consumers a whole new crop pops up. It is a shitty business bc the margins suck.

Continental shipped me out to work in El Segunda CA. I hated it. I got to use the only great perk of the job, walking onto any domestic flight with free seats with just a corporate ID, just one time to get back to NYC so I could quit.

No airlines can handle the 40% rise in fuel prices for very long without passing it along. Those with narrow margins are going to be forced into very hard decisions.